Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are increasingly being adopted as general illumination lighting sources due to their high energy efficiency and long service life relative to traditional sources of light such as incandescent, fluorescent and halogen. Each generation of LEDs are providing improvements in energy efficiency and cost per lumen, thus allowing for lighting manufacturers to produce LED light fixtures at increasingly competitive prices. One differentiator for LEDs over the traditional sources of light is their ability to be controlled very precisely relative to other lighting technologies, with the ability to switch on and off in microseconds.
User interface control systems for lights have not changed significantly in decades. The primary user interfaces for lighting fixtures are the light switch and the dimmer, typically a well-known TRIAC dimmer. In traditional lighting systems in which the only options are often on/off and luminous intensity dimming, these user interface controls may suffice. As LED lighting fixtures add more flexibility on color change and color temperature change, more advanced user interface control systems may be desired. Further, although consumers accept the status quo in which lighting user interfaces are generally uninteresting, it may be desirable to have a differentiated user interface control system for LED lighting fixtures that can take advantage of some of the physical and chemical properties of LEDs in order to capture the imagination of the public.
In general, there has been a push within many industries to implement touch free user interface controls, from voice activated telephone dialing to automatic flush toilets and faucets to lights turned on/off by clapping. The development towards touch-free solutions are being driven to increase the ability for people's hands to continue to do other tasks, to enable people to perform functions without having to touch surfaces or elements that may not be clean and/or to allow people to expend less energy while doing routine tasks. Generally, the current touch-free systems use ultrasonic, audio or infrared receivers to receive commands, detect presence and/or detect motion. Today, beyond the development of The Clapper control system (introduced to the public in 1985) and development of some infrared remote capabilities in some lighting fixtures, innovations in touch-free controls in the lighting industry have not been well developed.
Against this background, there is a need for solutions that will mitigate at least one of the above problems, particularly allowing LEDs to implement touch-free user interface control systems.